A pattern

I know I mentioned a while ago that I would write up a pattern for a little dress I made for Bea. I totally knitted a new and better one, I just haven't gotten around to writing it out completely as she really needed a fall hat. You see, the rain has started off and on and the evenings and mornings are chilly. Already, she is covered with knitted sweaters, shawls of mine, and now her hat and I'm really wondering how in the world we'll be able to put more on her as it really starts to get cold. This weather isn't even that cold, but you know that a wool lover waits and waits for this time of year to bundle up her babe in pretty stockinette and squishy garter stitches!

Oh baby stitches, you are loved! You are loved next to the rich red hawthorne berries and the rusty orange maples, the tall kale and the darker mornings.

Introducing Bea's Raindrop Hat,

Bea's Raindrop Hat
by little hand knits

Keep the littles warm

Yarn
Cascade Eco + (less than 200 yds) and three other colors of the same weight at about 1-2 yds in length
Gauge
4 st = 1 inch
Needles
16in size 8 circular
size 8 dpns
Notions
One stitch marker, tapestry needle

Abbreviations
CO: cast on
pm: place marker
k2tog: knit two together

Notes
*When knitting the three color work rows, be sure to carry your colors loosely, being careful to twist the yarn in the back consistently the same to keep rows from bunching and to keep the inside of the hat neat.
*When selecting your three color work colors, label them as colors one, two, and three.
*This hat was knit for an 8 month old with a pretty normal sized head. If the child you are knitting for has a bigger head, knit for an inch or more longer when knitting body of hat.

Pattern
With main color, CO 60 stitches, pm and join in a round. K in rib pattern (K1, P1) for 2 inches. K in stockinette until your hat measures 5 inches from the cast on row. Start color work rows as follows:

Row 1: starting with main color, alternate main color with color one
Row 2: starting with color two, alternate color two with main color
Row 3: starting with color three, alternate color three with color two
Knit two rows. Start decreasing as follows:

k2, k2tog and repeat until end of row
k row
k2, k2tog and repeat until end of row
k row
(switch to your dpns right around here or when stitches start stretching across circular needle)
k2tog all the way around
k row
k2tog all the way around until there is one stitch left.
Break yarn, leaving a tail. Thread tapestry needle and bring tail through last loop.
Weave in all ends.

Enjoy, you all!

Colorado

We just got back from Colorado where we visited with uncles and aunts, cousins and grandparents, and most importantly Bea's great grandma Elaine. Bea crawled near great grandma as she laid under her pretty yellow sheets. Our squirmy eight month old landed on great grandma's legs every once in a while but Elaine didn't seem to mind. She grabbed her hands and played with her rings. Great grandma smiled for Bea. She played with her feet, told her she loved her reddish hair and let us just be with her. Her whole house was full of love. I felt it every time we stepped in and saw it on the pictures that hung on the walls and felt it on my knees as I played with the kids on the fuzzy carpet, the same carpet Kenny and his brothers played on. It was an emotional and difficult trip but a good one. I'm so glad Elaine has the care-giving family she does. I can't say it enough, there was a lot of love there, a whole heaping lot of love.

I like her.

I can't help it. I know Nikki McClure is really popular and everywhere I look and if for a moment I forget how that usually bugs me and turns me away I am honestly impressed and moved by her paper cuts. I love how simple the images are, how not simple the process must be, turning each corner and making delicate shapes with a blade or many different blades; how slow and thoughtful this handwork is. Also, I am drawn to parents who create and parent well at the same time. Bea has the book, "Awake to Nap" by her and on the back it says something I like very much,

"I made this book while my infant son napped. I could only cut the pictures while he slept so the pictures are small and quick gleanings from my new life as a mother.  The dining room table became my studio.  I would put down my pencil as lightly as possible so as not to disturb the baby, hoping for a few more moments of work before I, too, had to take a nap.

The alphabet was never finished intentionally; the naps were too short and life too thrilling to justify going all the way to Z. I no longer had the attention span and neither did my baby. We were too awake."

I love how we must incorporate our little ones into the lives we already had or the ones we want. It has to be the greatest example a parent can set: doing what you love and if a creative something is tugging at your shirt, take those moments in between everyone's needed naps and in between chores or forget the chores, just play the damn guitar.

Here is a fun interview with the talented Nikki McClure.

Watch Miranda July talk for two minutes about being a new parent.

The little things

The following pictures might show you how things move around here. I like the way this family thing is going. Many of these pictures were taken by Kenny. So, you may see some of his perspective too. Have you read how the sun's poles are currently switching? Amazing. I'm still trying to understand how to wrap my brain around it. On to the little things. Please note the two amazing quilts that Bea alternates playing on. The sweet hand stitched pink quilt is by Great Grandma Elaine and Great Great Grandma and the amazingly detailed bee themed quilt is from Great Aunt Judy. Lucky girl.

Half a year

My brain feels scattered like when paper flies in the air and then gently sways and rocks to the ground. So, it's a pretty good scattered though I don't get things accomplished the way I used to, with a brain like this and a baby. A baby, the girl of my dreams, Bea is six months old! It was half a year ago that we welcomed her into this chilly world and now, mid summer, she's eating sticks and tasting clover. She's so close to getting on her knees for the rock, right before the crawl. That girl wants to get around. When she nurses I watch her busy kneeding hands and then her long gulps as the milk comes in. Then she dozes, drinks, dozes and I think that I will not be able to watch this girl in this way for very much longer. I'm drinking it up and storing it for a day when she's older, swinging on the monkey bars (if she's that kind of gal). 

Her half birthday, it really does get better and better.

List

It's getting brisk out! Who knows, the heat may come back but a knitter doesn't care. It's time to start planning for autumn. Plus, a lady with little knitting time must start this shit early.

1. This lovely Heartwarmer for Bea. It's kind of a mini version of a Sontag, which I've started falling in love with thanks to Kate Davies. If you have never read her blog or seen her designs I highly recommend jaunting over to this Scottish gentlewoman's website. Inspiring!

2. Thrummed mittens. The pattern is from Interweave Knits October 2006. These have been on the list for years now. Can you believe you knit roving into the mitt? COZY! Three pairs coming right up. I can't help but want Bartlett Yarn for this project. It's simply my go to for heavy duty soon to be weathered knits.





3. Lots of basic socks, of course. Well, I'll probably only get around to a pair each and many for Bea. She has the smallest feet after all.

4. Many projects from this gem -

The Baby Surprise Jacket, Bonnet, and maybe the next size up in the Tomten and I can't help but want them in the sturdy wool of Bartlett again. It's water resistant and the color palate is, phew, the best.

5. And last but not really the last on the list because there's always something else on the list, a sweater for the man. I've got the yarn, Berroco Comfort from Close Knit. Talk about affordable and pretty, in teal. Maybe this pattern, from Purl Soho, without the pouch?

I truly want to hear about your projects now.